Optimus Investors Claim "Incomplete Sales"

"Products That Absolutely Cannot Suffer Losses"

Signs of Investor Information Deficiency Detected
Today, Maturities No. 15 and 16 Added
Redemption Suspension Estimated at 60 Billion Won

[Asia Economy Reporters Minji Lee, Jihwan Park] "'If only they had said, 'You are putting money into Optimus Asset Management, not NH Investment & Securities,' I would never have invested.'

The controversy over the suspension of redemptions in the Optimus Asset Management private equity fund has brought incomplete sales allegations to the surface. It has been confirmed that investors were reassured with statements that there was no need to worry at all unless a public institution went bankrupt, leading to incomplete sales practices.

Mr. A (69), who lives in Busan, has been losing sleep since the 19th. On that day, he received the shocking news through the media that the redemption of the fund he had invested in was postponed. After hearing from his private banker (PB) that there was no need to worry as long as public institutions did not go bankrupt, he invested 200 million KRW in a securities firm's private equity fund product and now faces the risk of losing even his principal. Furthermore, Mr. A said that until the day the redemption crisis broke out, he was not even aware that his money had been invested in Optimus Asset Management. In a phone interview with Asia Economy, he said, "When I signed up on February 25, I saw Optimus written in the PDF (product description), so I asked what it was. They said it was just a formal company name on the documents and I didn't need to worry about it," adding, "I naturally understood that the money was going into a company established by NH Investment & Securities. If I had known the money was going to a place called Optimus, I would never have invested."

Mr. A claims that the problem started from the subscription stage. Having mainly invested in issued notes and deposit products at that branch, he was told on January 23 that if he put the matured issued notes into a product coming out a month later, he could receive a higher interest rate (0.3%). Seeing it as a similar product, he decided to invest. Mr. A explained, "I had no knowledge of private equity funds at all," and "When I checked as instructed during subscription, I was categorized as risk-neutral."

Most investors who invested in the Optimus fund say they were told things like "This is a product that can never incur losses," or "There can be no losses unless the country collapses," raising the possibility of incomplete sales. Since the fund invests in sales receivables of public enterprises guaranteed by the state and the product's investment grade is classified as 5 to 6, it is possible that sales firms introduced it as a 'stable product that cannot incur losses' to encourage investment.

Researcher Hyoseop Lee of the Korea Capital Market Institute pointed out, "Even if it is a low-risk product, if the product explanation was not properly provided under investment solicitation regulations, it can be considered incomplete sales," adding, "Sales firms should also consider their insufficient post-management systems for consumer protection."

Attorney Inseong Jang of Jeonghan Law Firm, who is preparing litigation on behalf of Optimus fund investors, said, "Whether the product is high-risk or low-risk will not greatly affect the determination of incomplete sales," and "The focus should be on whether the sales firms fulfilled all their obligations at the time of fund sales."

Sales firms maintain that it is difficult to regard this as incomplete sales. While high-risk products like the Lime scandal may have issues with insufficient explanations, they argue that there are no problematic aspects in this product.

As of now, based on NH Investment & Securities, which sold the most Optimus funds, four funds have suspended redemptions: Optimus Creator Bond Specialized Private Equity Investment Trust No. 25, No. 26, and No. 15 and No. 16, which matured on the same day. The scale of suspended redemptions is estimated to be about 68 billion KRW.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.